By Sujoy Dhar
IANS
Kolkata : Communist patriarch Jyoti Basu, after an unprecedented meeting with his arch-rival Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress Monday, recognised her anti-land acquisition movement, admitted his party workers were launching attacks on Nandigram villagers and citicised the Tata Motors project in Singur.
At their joint press conference, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader and former West Bengal chief minister Basu stunned all when he said,"a car factory does not need more than 600 acres", referring to the controversial Tata Motors plant to be spread over 997 acres.
"I cannot say about the government. They perhaps have to talk afresh with the Tatas or if the Tatas would still remain in the project if the land was reorganised," he said.
Over 997 acres of land in Singur, about 40 km from Kolkata in Hooghly district, have been chosen by Tata Motors for its small car project. The issue has triggered a violent face-off between the government and farmers led by civil society groups and parties like the Trinamool.
Basu, 94, surprised all as he called up Banerjee and invited her for a meeting at 7 p.m. to end the ongoing violence in Nandigram.
After their 50-minute talks, the former arch-ivals sat together before a battery of newspersons where Banerjee said she was grateful to Basu for hearing her patiently and promised not to follow politics of stubbornness over Nandigram.
"We don't do politics of stubbornness. We are not against industry but against people being robbed of their land by force. We are against the method. The Tatas can relocate just opposite the road where 600 acres are available," Banerjee said.
"There are attacks on Nandigram from Khejuri (a CPI-M stronghold), I am told. It must be by my party's local units," Basu said and hoped: "I am sure she (Mamata) is sincere in resolving the crisis. She is the biggest opposition leader now. Her attitude is positive. Mamata is for peace.
"Mamata would not object (to industry) and as opposition we also helped Bidhan Chandra Roy to set up industry," Basu said.
"She explained to me the Singur situation and that about 300 people did not accept cheques for the land acquired from them for the Tata Motors project," he said.
Basu said Banerjee's efforts would help the 2,000 to 3,000 displaced CPI-M supporters to return to Nandigram from Khejuri where they are living in camps while the anti-land acquisition supporters who had to leave homes at Khejuri would also be able to return.
After the meet, Banerjee seemed ready to give up her stand on incorporating the word "genocide" – to describe the March 14 police firing in Nandigram killing 14 people – in the draft proposal of Nandigram peace talks that broke down May 24 over semantics.
"He is concerned about Nandigram. We are happy that now he knows what we had to say. We only want people of Nandigram to get justice. We want the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Nandigram to resume," she said.
"For the first time in 30 years of the Left Front rule in West Bengal we were heard," Banerjee said.
Commenting on the meet, Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee said: "There is more diplomacy in the meeting than anything else. The CPI-M proved that it can talk directly to Banerjee and does not need its allies (Forward Bloc, RSP) for that."
At least 21 people have been killed, hundreds injured and several women raped in the continuing violence in Nandigram, about 150 km from here in East Midnapore district, since January over possible land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ) project in collaboration with Indonesia's Salim Group. Thousands have been living in camps since.